At the end of 2020, domestic milk intake in Ireland reached just shy of 8.3 billion litres – up more than 305 million litres on the 7.9 billion recorded for the previous year – according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
But where does Ireland fit in on a global scale?
We all know we are major players in the global dairy trading market, due to the sheer amount of dairy products we export; but in terms of overall milk production, where does Ireland fit in?
The US reached 101 million tonnes or 97.5 billion litres of milk in 2020 – producing 12 times more milk than Ireland.
Coming closely behind the US is India at 93.8 million tonnes or 90.6 billion litres in 2020 – 11 times the milk pool of Ireland.
Interestingly, India is home to the highest number of dairy cows – at 56.4 million head in 2020 – but the EU produces 50% more milk. What is even more striking is that the average herd size in India is just two cows.
Leading producer of cow’s milk worldwide in 2020 in million tonnes. Image source: Statista
Following on from these is China, which produced 33 million tonnes (31.88 billion litres) in 2020 and then Russia at 31.65 million tonnes (30 billion litres) of milk.
Next up is Brazil, where the gap widens significantly. In 2020, Brazil reached 23.51 million tonnes or 22.71 billion litres of milk.
Producing 2.5 times more than Ireland, New Zealand reached 22 million tonnes or 21 billion litres of milk in 2020.
Finally, Australia produced 9.1 million tonnes of milk in 2020 or 8.7 billion litres. This is just 508 million litres ahead of milk production in Ireland in 2020 – or by 4.7%.